Crushed ice jelly on the ground

Hi, I was working in my flower bed in North Raleigh, North Carolina and found small piles of what looked like crushed ice but is the texture of a jelly. Did not notice it there two days ago. What would it be? Terresa

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3 thoughts on “Crushed ice jelly on the ground”

Hi Terresa, Thanks for writing. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was, so I asked my friend Eric Powers of Your Connection to Nature. Eric identified your jelly crushed ice as the defensive fluid released by a black cherry tree, (Prunus serotina). The process of releasing gum resin to fight insects or disease is called gummosis. Black cherry is well known to release large amounts of gum, primarily to fight peach bark beetles. Eric points out that it usually has a brown tinge, but it can be crystal clear. So the question is, do you have a black cherry tree overhanging your garden? Tom

That is seriously interesting. I don’t believe I have any black cherry trees. I’ll see if I can do a mini catalog. Without looking I know we have Hawthorne, holly, tulip, black pine, some other evergreen. Terresa

The Question: We dug some post holes, and next morning they were filled in. We redug and again they were filled in overnight. On the third or fourth day I happened to be outside just as dawn broke and saw a badger filling in one of the post holes. Have you ever witnessed this or heard reports of this behavior from others?Submitted by: Lee, British Columbia, Canada

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The Question: In early June, I took a kayak trip on Winton Lake, starting out before sunrise and getting to the area where these photos were taken just as the sun was coming up. There were green bubbles all over the lake. After the sun came up, they began to break up and were gone within about an hour after sunrise. I’ve never seen anything like this on any lake I’ve ever paddled and I’m very curious what could cause it! Can you supply any answers?Submitted by: Mark, Ohio, USA